Wednesday, May 28, 2008

California Blues Festival

Bobbie Webb

On Memorial Day, I headed down to beautiful Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Golden Gate Park is the home to a multitude of homeless derelicts. It is also the home of the California Blues Festival. This year was the 14th or 16th annual festival.

This year had featured several of the same performers that appear on an annual basis like Bobbie Webb and Fillmore Slim. This year, Willie G, Pat Wilder and Tia Carroll were added to the bill.

One thing that never changes is that there were way too many performers to get onstage in the five hours of the festival. I arrived at about 1:30pm. Bobbie Webb was in the midst of a nice set featuring some fantastic Junior Walker instrumentals.

There is always a surprise act. This year, the Kelly Richey Band from Cincinnati made a surprise appearance. Thankfully, it was an abbreviated performance. It wasn't a performance that moved me.

I ran into some longtime friends that I hadn't seen in a while.

At about 3:30pm, we realized that there were still five acts to perform. Fillmore Slim delivered a solid performance. Willie G did a short set and sounded great. There was a female singer that sang a couple that I had never seen previously. Unfortunately, I didn't get her name. Tia Carroll did a nice version of Matchbox Blues. The show wrapped up with a nice tune by a singer named McKinley.

The show wrapped up about ten minutes late. Overall, it was a good day featuring good music and good friends.